I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)
Many years ago I knew an older Christian lady (now with the Lord) who imagined herself living under a permanent cloud of shame and reproach. Her first child had been conceived out of wedlock and she was convinced that this was the reason why the girl had been born with an intellectual disability. The presence of that handicap was a continual reminder of her sin. Far worse, it spoke to her of God’s judgment. Whatever other people might say to her about God’s grace and forgiveness, there was still the child; still the shame of that stolen moment and (in her mind) its tragic consequence.
I wonder how you would have advised her?
You might have told her that it was simply superstitious of her to think like that. She didn’t, and couldn’t, really know that there was any connection between her sin and that disability. You might have pointed to parts of the Bible which discourage that kind of simplistic thinking (e.g. John 9:3,34 or the whole of Job!)
Forgiveness and Consequence
But what about those verses where God does afflict people physically for doing the wrong thing? Wasn’t that what happened to the descendants of Eli (1 Sam 2:27–33)? Didn’t David and Bathsheba’s first son die because of their adultery (2 Sam 12:14)? Wasn’t it true that David and his family still experienced God’s punishment even though he himself was forgiven (2 Sam 12:13)? Didn’t God send a famine on Israel because of Saul’s sins against the Gibeonites? Didn’t the Corinthians experience sickness and death because of their sinful treatment of each other?
Dwelling on incidents like these can encourage dark speculations. If even God’s covenant people weren’t exempt from the consequences of their sin, who knows what might be causing the troubles in my own life? Is it because I…?; or because I have failed to…?
This is an unhealthy way to think. But for people with a certain kind of mind (and I include myself here), it is difficult to resist. In the dark of the night we find ourselves trying to work out the causes of God’s secret judgments on our lives and imagining what acts of contrition might cause them to be revoked. Although we believe that Jesus has ultimately paid for our sins, we also live with a vague suspicion that he is also a bit against us. He hasn’t let us off scot-free.
I wonder how you would advise us?
The Layered World
The first response should be to recognise that things which happen in the world have multiple causes. For example, you might get sick and die from smoking cigarettes; but it’s also true that you get sick and die because of the death that came through the sin of Adam (Rom 5:15). Or again, my living in Australia has something to do with the Gold-Rush, but it’s also true that I live here because God determined the “boundaries and periods” of where human families live (Acts 17:26).
This layered pattern is revealed again and again in the Bible. We see it in when Joseph declares that his brothers’ wicked betrayal was also God’s plan for the “salvation of many lives” (Gen 50:20). We see it in the way Israel’s sinful request for a king confirms the oracle of Jacob (Gen 49:10) and opens the way for the Messiah.
Supremely, we see it in the crucifixion. As Peter explains it in his Pentecost sermon, the murder of Jesus was simultaneously an act perpetrated by “lawless men,” and “the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Both things are true. But the theological truth is deeper.
The Deeper Story
In Romans 8, the apostle Paul teaches us to apply this layered thinking to every part of our lives. The first thing we need to know is that, if we’ve put our faith in Christ, then God is for us.
- Because God has already judged our sin in Christ’s body (vv 2b-3) we are free from blame: “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v 1).
- Because God “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (v 32), we can be absolutely confident that there is no charge against us (31,33-34).
This is the deepest, indeed really the only explanation that we need for our circumstances. There might be myriad other factors shaping our lives: social, psychological, political, medical, spiritual (as in spirits – more on this next week). Often there are factors that are completely inscrutable to us. But God’s love for us in Christ is the truest of them all: “…for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (v 28). As Paul enlarges on the same idea a few verses later:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35,37)
Hope for the Hurt & Self-Hurt
Paul’s scope here is universal. There is no situation the Christian can find him or herself in that is not governed by this fundamental truth. And that must even include those situations that we bring on ourselves through sin and stupidity. As Augustine writes:
To such as love Him, God co-works with all things for good; so absolutely all things, that even if any of them go astray, and break out of the way, even this itself he makes to avail them for good. [1]
Think about a blatant example of what this means. If you drive like a fool and get sent to prison then you are, on one level experiencing the judgment of God through his intermediaries (Rom 13:3-4). Yet, deep down, it’s even more true that you are in that situation because God has sent you there for your good. To paraphrase Tim Keller, God is giving you what you would have asked for if you knew what he knows about your life.
None of this should encourage us to think lightly of sin, or (even more foolishly) to go forward into sin presuming that God will make it right on the other side. Sin hurts and it will bring us more injury if we think of it lightly.
But for those who have already experienced that hurt, and who are tempted to think too much of the reproaches and consequences of their own actions, this is a powerful corrective. They (we) need to go deeper.
God’s work through the cross of Christ should completely alter our perspective on our circumstances. If God was able to bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil ever perpetrated – the murder of his Son – then we can be sure he will bring good out of our own failures too. Paul’s assurance that “all things work together for good” means what it says.
This is what that lady needed to know most of all. It’s what people like me need to know. We don’t need to waste our time guessing at the unseen causes of our troubles. We need to think more deeply. Beneath every circumstance we find the cross, and the grace of Christ.
Photo: Asbørn Hansen; flickr
[1] “Treatise on Grace and Rebuke”, 24 in P. Schaff (ed), A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. two series, 28 volumes (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1895) 1.5 p.481.
